The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-04-23
JUDGE CARTOONS LETTER.

COIuEluQIGatlOI
by Judge Carlton, chairman of the
Utah Commiasieu. Messrs- r. n. Bas-
kin and J. E. Dooley, acting probably
torthe Loyal League, submitted to the
Commission tie form of an oath which
they desired the Commission to require
citizens to subscribe before they would
be permitteG2&o register or vote. This
proposed oath was cunaingly devised
and drawn to exclude all -Mormens
from the rights and privileges of the
franchise. Having failed in the nefar-
ious scheme to have Congress deprive
the people of the right tetvote and hold
Office, thesgentlemen named above, and
those with whom they are leagued,
would bulldoze or inveigle the Commas
sion into perpetrating theogtrage which
the national legislature refused to GEM
NIT. Lt'is evident fromiJudge Carlsep's
letter that the latest League ihfamy
will faii, as its other schemes have done.
The Judge asserts that he speaks
only fer himself, but it is pretty
generally understood that his views
are the views of the majority of the
Commission, and thissbeing true, the
oath aiready formulatedand set out in
the circular issued sone timeaago for
the information of registration officers,
viii not be changed.
TIE HERALD heartily congratulates
the chairman of the Commission on
his clear, comprehensive and forcible
presentation of the MISTER. He makes
it Sc plain that the Commission mas
goaesas far as the law will permit it to
&C IL the exclusion Of unqualified and
disqualified persons from the polls,
that to ask the board to do more is an
insult to the intelligence and judgment
Of the members, and request that
they will assume the responsibility of
statute. Judge Cartten covers the
ground completely, and makes an I'M
ansEerable presentmeat, when he sets
out the disabilities to which voters are
subject. He says:
Nopol -ygamist, bigamist, ofeny person co
be entitled to register or vote At any election
IN this renttory;nOr any person who has been
convicted OF the crimes of incest. unlawful
cohabitatien. adultery. fOnnics ZION, bigamy
or pc ygamy; no. auYperSon who associates |
or cohabits polygamOusly with persons of.
the other sex nor can auy person register or |
vote who has not taken and subscribed the |
oath prescribed by the Twenty-fourth Sec
ton OF the act of Congress OF March Sd, 1887; |
nor can any woman register or vote.
All other persons possessing the local |
statutory qualifications, as TO age, resi-
dence, etc., have the right to register
and vote. The rules and regulations |
issuedby the Commission will deprive
no man of the right to vote that Con-
gress intended should vote, nor will the
faithful carrying out of these rules
permit any man to register or
vote from whom it was the
purpose of Congress to withdraw
the franchise. What mere could
be askedil The law being faithfully
executed, 1.-THE disqualified being pre-
vented from voting, and the way kept
open by which the qualified can ex-
ercise their rights, the commission has
performed its whole duty. If Congress
had inteaaed that Mormons who
have not violated certain laws, and who
were willing to swear that they would 1t
not violate those laws, should not vote
it would have said so in so many
words. If Congress had intended that
belief in the doctrines of the Mormon
Church should act as disqualification,
II would not have enacted that no per- ,
son shall be excluded from the polls j
ION account of any opinionisuch person
may entertain on the subject of bigamy I
or polygamy." If Congress had in
tended there should be done in the Ter s
ritory what the Loyal League asks the ,
Commission to do, it would have }
laws for the doingof it. And i
finally If Congress had intended that i
the Commission should possess and ex- i
encise legislative powers and functions, '
1t would have conferred them in explicit
terms, instead of enacting that leach
and every duty relating tothe registra-
ton Of voters, the coniuct of elections, i
etc., shall be performed under !
the existing laws of the United States r
and CT said Territory by proper persons, b
who shall be appointed to execu Aesuch
Office and perform such dutid a .
board OF five persons. to be ap He'd i.
by the President, by and with the ad- s
Eice and consent of the Senate" 2
Judge Cartons letter is tie frank =
ind intelligent expression of en- official 8
who understands his duties under the c
aw and who proro 5es to perform those !
ioties, and not assume powers and au- Il
hority cieariy outside the law. We o
.1nn it ID cur readers, and espec:- q =
j TO registration off GERS and judges Q,